Topics on the Anthropology of Tourism (ANTH3590)

Course Details

Course Number: ANTH3590

Course Location: New Cabell Hall 489

Course Meeting Time(s): Tue, Thu 3:30pm-4:45pm

Credit Hours: 3

Instructor Information

Instructor: Dr. Ernesto Benitez

Office: 303 Brooks Hall

Office Hours: Tue, Thu 2pm-3pm and by appointment.

Email: tcr7kb@virginia.edu

Course Description

       Until the 1970s, tourism was not really considered a legitimate subject of enquiry in Anthropology and few scholars paid much attention to the close relationship between tourism and larger patterns of circulation of power, ideas, capital, and bodies. Today, the Anthropology of Tourism possesses a well-established body of literature that looks critically at the tourism industry and the relationships, imaginaries, and inequalities it produces and perpetuates. This course will examine anthropological perspectives on tourism practices and imaginaries, with special attention to Global South destinations. We will analyze how tourism imaginaries have come to shape our perceptions of different landscapes and peoples, and how these imaginaries also shape our understadings of seemingly unrelated concepts such as race, gender, and sexuality. Furthermore, we will discuss how service-based work in tourism shapes how local and Indigenous communities reimagine their identities to accommodate outside expectations and how they may deploy those identities to contest class and racial dynamics at the local level.    

 

 

 

Course Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, you will...

• Be familiar with the main concepts and theoretical approaches to the study of tourism in anthropology.
• Gain awareness about how global inequalities get reproduced during the tourism encounter.
• Critically reflect on the impact of tourism development for local communities in the Global South.
• Critically reflect on the ways in which certain stereotypes about Indigenous peoples are perpetuated in Western discourse and how they shape tourism imaginaries in Indigenous communities.
• Critically reflect on the proposition that ecotourism or small-scale tourism projects in Indigenous and local communities can be effective alternatives to extractivist industries and promote sustainable development.

Assessments

Final Presentation

You will do 5-minute in-class presentations of your final research paper during finals week. The objective of this assignment is for you to share your work with and receive feedback from your peers. 

Value: 5%

Final Research Paper

You will write a final research paper on any topic or issue related to Tourism Studies from an ethnographic perspective. The paper should be between 10 and 12 double-spaced pages in length, and it must be informed by a thorough literature review. This will allow you to explore your own interests and questions concerning anthropological approaches to the study of tourism. You must submit a one-paragraph topic proposal by a date to be set by me. 

Value: 25%

Mid-term paper

The mid-term paper will offer an opportunity to produce an annotated bibliography and a detailed outline for the final research paper. I will provide individualized, in-depth feedback on this assignment, which will be helpful as you develop your ideas and arguments into a research paper.

Value: 20%

Participation

One of the two weekly class sessions will be devoted to group-based discussion and analysis of the material covered that week. The overall participation grade will be based on these group-based assignments, and you will be evaluated not on the "correctness" of your answers, but on your effort to critically and creatively engage with course material and the quality of your analysis. You will be evaluated on your contribution to your group in various, equally valuable ways, such as note-taking, in-group discussion, oral presentation, etc.

Value: 30%

Quizzes

There will be weekly, open-book quizzes which will assess your comprehension of course material. Each quiz will consist of 10 questions, evenly split between multiple choice and short essay questions. This will assess your ability to identify core concepts and themes from the readings, but also your ability to think about the broader implications of those concepts and themes in relation to the overall goals and objectives of the course. Quizzes will be available on our Collab site.

Value: 20%

Course Calendar

Date	Topics	Readings and Activities	Assignments
What is this course about?
Aug 23, 2022	Syllabus Overview	No readings required
Aug 25, 2022	Unit 1: Introduction to the anthropology of tourism	Chapter 1 of Native Tours.
Aug 30, 2022	Tourism and Development	Chapter 2 of Native Tours (p 31-50) Hawkins, Donald E., and Shaun Mann. 2007. "The World Bank’s role in tourism development.”	Readings available on Week 2 tab
Sept 1, 2022	Group-based discussion		Participation
Sept 6, 2022	Tourism and the Environment	Chapter 3 of Native Tours (p.69-80) Igoe, Jim. The spectacle of nature	Readings available on Week 3 tab
Sept 8, 2022	Group-based discussion		Participation
Sept 13, 2022	Tourism and the Environment (Cont.)	Chapter 3 of Native Tours (p. 80-94) Buckley. Tourism and the Environment Hunt et al. Can ecotourism deliver real economic, social and environmental benefits?	Quiz #1 due on September 12 at 11:59pm Readings available on Week 4 tab
Sept 15, 2022	Group-based discussion		Participation
Sept 20, 2022	Tourism and Culture	Chapter 4 of Native Tours. McCannell, Dean. Staged Authenticity	Quiz # 2 on September 19 at 11:59pm Readings available on Week 5 tab
Sept 22, 2022	Group-based discussion	-Film Cannibal Tours (Part 1)	Participation
Sept 27, 2022	Tourism and Culture (Cont.)	Urry, John. The Tourist Gaze Revisited Salazar, Noel. Tourism Imaginaries	Quiz # 3 due on September 26 at 11:59pm Readings available on Week 6 tab
Sept 29, 2022	Group-based discussion	-Film Cannibal Tours (Part 2)	Participation
Oct 4, 2022	No class. Fall reading day.	No class	No class
Oct 6, 2022	Tourism and Culture (Cont.)	Davidov, Veronica. Shamans and Shams. Aldred, Lisa. Plastic Shamans and Astroturf Sun Dances	Readings available on Week 7 tab
Oct 11, 2022	Tourism and Culture (Cont.)	Ypeij, Annelou. The Intersection of Gender and Ethnic Identities in the Cuzco–Machu Picchu Tourism Industry Cole, Stroma. Beyond Authenticity and Commodification.	Quiz # 4 due on October 10 at 11:59pm Readings available on Week 8 tab
Oct 13, 2022	Group-based discussion	Film “Cashing in on Culture”	Participation
Oct 18, 2022	Pilgrimage and Heritage Tourism	Bruner, Edward. Tourism in Ghana: The Representation of Slavery and the Return of the Black Diaspora Rinschede, Gisbert. Forms of Religious Tourism	Midterm Exam due on October 17 at 11:59pm Readings available on Week 9 tab
Oct 20, 2022	Group-based discussion		Participation
Oct 25, 2022	Sex Tourism	Opperman, Martin. Sex Tourism Ryan and Hall. Paradigms of Sex Tourism	Quiz # 5 due on October 24 at 11:59pm Readings available on Week 10 tab
Oct 27, 2022	Group-based discussion		Participation
Nov 1, 2022	Sex Tourism (Cont.)	Simoni, Valerio. Coping with ambiguous relationships Bernstein and Shih. The erotics of authenticity Padilla, Mark. Western Union Daddies	Quiz # 6 due on October 31 at 11:59pm Readings available on Week 11 tab
Nov 3, 2022	Group-based discussion	Film Paradise Love (Part 1)	Participation
Nov 8, 2022	Sex Tourism (Cont.)	Pruitt and LaFont. For love and for money. Sanchez-Taylor. Female sex tourism: a contradiction in terms? Frohlick, Sue. Fluid exchanges.	Quiz # 7 due on November 7 at 11:59pm Readings available on Week 12 tab
Nov 10, 2022	Group-based discussion	Film Paradise Love (Part 2)	Participation
Nov 15, 2022	Medical Tourism	Mazzaschi, Andrew. Surgeon and Safari Connell, John. Medical Tourism: Sea, Sand… and Surgery.	Quiz # 8 due on November 14 at 11:59pm Readings available on Week 13 tab
Nov 17, 2022	Group-based discussion		Participation
Nov 22, 2022	Dark Tourism	Stone, Phillip. A Dark Tourism Spectrum. Knudsen, Britta. Thanatourism Witnessing Diffcult Pasts	Quiz #9 due on November 21 at 11:59pm Readings available on Week 14 tab
Nov 24, 2022	No class.	Thanksgiving recess
Nov 29, 2022	Final Presentations		Quiz #10 due on November 28 at 11:59pm
Dec 1, 2022	Final Presentations
Dec 6,2022	Final Presentations

Grading Scheme

Weekly quizzes: 20%

Participation (30%)

Mid-term paper (20%)

Final Research Paper (25%)

Final Presentation (5%)

Grading Scale:

95-100: A+

90-95: A

85-89: B+

80-85: B

75-79:C+

70-75:C

65-69:D+

60-65:D

>60: F

 

Required materials

 

Nearly all course materials will be available on our Collab site. Additionally, we will be using the following textbook:

• Chambers, Erve. 2020. Native tours: The anthropology of travel and tourism (3^rd ed.). Waveland Press, Inc.

Attendance Policy

Attendance is directly related to your participation grade, since the course has a strong team-based learning component. However, we will continue to abide by UVA policies regarding COVID-19, which can be found at https://coronavirus.virginia.edu/.

Late Work Policy

I will accept one request for a deadline extension during the semester which will not impact your grade. This does NOT include the deadline for your final research paper. Any additional requests will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. 

Honor/Academic Integrity Policy

In general, plagiarism is defined as taking credit for someone else’s work. I have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to plagiarism. You will receive an automatic F for a plagiarized assignment, and you will be referred to the Honor Committee for disciplinary action. Do NOT plagiarize; if you have problems completing an assignment, or if you cannot meet the deadline, come talk to me. Please visit https://honor.virginia.edu/plagiarism-supplement to learn more about the Honor Code at UVA.

Accessibility

Please visit https://studenthealth.virginia.edu/sdac to learn about UVA policies and resources for students with disabilities, and to request accommodations.